It is truly a judgment to pick a decade describing the warp and woof of the US history, though the 1920s represent a perfect bridgehead for such reflections. The 1920s, to an enormous extent, resemble our contemporary era, with that crucial decade being a precursor of contemporary superfluity (Miller, New World Coming 1). Likewise, much of what is regarded modern in reality took place in the 1920s, such as jazz and psychiatry (Miller, New World Coming 1). The recovery of the US economy in that times contributed heavily to its subsequent participation in the Second World War. Following the newly established policy laid the groundwork of the welfare state: the state interfered with market economy if necessary, assumed social responsibilities, regulated the relations between proprietors and labor. The ingrained principles of the welfare state are still common in the US, as well as in many countries throughout the world. Considering all the failures and achievements that befell the US in the 1920s, it can be rightfully stated that this decade proved integral for the whole subsequent formation of the USA as a major superpower, with the majority of the principles introduced in the beginning of the 20th century playing a major role in contemporary cultural and political life of Americans.
The 1920s in the US history are characterized by a steady and stable development. The domestic policy of the states of that times witnessed an economic growth, the formation of the middle class, growth in commerce and industry. People who came from all over the world seeking for a better life saw a dreamboat in America, the country where everyone had to labor, and only then he could become a rich. All migrants moving to America were met by New York. Its skyscrapers amazed the newcomers. Big American capitalists who supplied the warring armies during the First World War made a fortune and started playing a crucial role in making decisions of national importance. The concretion of government and large business that had commenced in the beginning of the 20th century, was continuing. The US had an accurate beginning at the First World War, as well as the fight for the League of Nations, though having an end with the crash of the stock market in the late 1920s and subsequent political collapse (Miller, New World Coming 1). The War had put an end to the old Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires, with the Versailles' participants having the necessity to replace them (Goldberg, Discontented America 13). Having determined the US entering the war, Woodrow Wilson also defined the US as the country playing a key role in shaping international peace. The war itself, according to Wilson's beliefs, resulted from the obsolete alliances that had to be dissolved for the sake of a new collective safety (Goldberg, Discontented America 13). Through his conceptions, Wilson shaped the future US policy that would determine it as a major superpower having a worldwide influence, with the States ensuring a world with free commerce, open diplomacy, and, of course, a union of nations that would serve as a guarantor for such peace.
The postwar years, however, introduced an extraordinary political context. Taken by surprise by the unexpected ending of the war, the Wilson administration in the early 1920s faced unparalleled labor disturbance, as well as the new danger in the face of the Red Scare, to which emergence it had contributed (Goldberg, Discontented America 40). Still, the Red Scare argument was neglected by the Americans of that era as unsound. According to the American citizens, the sole reason for these epidemic strikes was the intention of the Reds to import the Communist revolution in the US. That is why the 1919 strikes terrified so greatly, and it is clear that the fear of the Reds did not appear out of nowhere: the fear had existed to a certain extent even before America's entry into the war. There were also anarchists in the US, and it were they who were responsible for making an attack on McKinley in 1901 (President William McKinley is Shot). Furthermore, since 1905 there emerged a radical labor union called the Industrial Workers of the World, whose members were primarily workers from the West of the US - butchers, dockers, and laborers (Foner, The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917 559).
The strikes, especially the ones that took place in Seattle in 1919s, were described as the manifestation of the Reds' subversion. The Utah senator emphasized the menace that overhung the US government, as well as the government of other capitalist countries, which later contributed to the establishment of the Senate commission, the task of which was to collect information regarding the communists' activity in the US. Subsequently, to demonstrate the vivid danger, Justice Department decided to expel 50 foreigners accused of creating a tense situation in Washington. A peculiar fact that the Indiana court had been conferring only two minutes to acquit the killer whose victim was a foreigner screaming "Down with the US".
Despite the interior conflicts, the US began to acquire its reputation as the worldwide power both in terms of finances and armed forces. The US dollar, due to advertising, appeared the most stable currency for the Europeans. No one doubted the steadfastness of the newly introduced currency, especially considering the expanding economic growth of the States throughout the entire decade. The end of the 1920s, however, faced global economic crisis that had originated in the US. With the US financial market collapse, it entailed the failure of all European markets. The bankrupt enterprises all over the country became closed, companies were suffering multimillion losses, the US faced millions of the unemployed. Nonetheless, with that harsh end of the 1920s, it became clear that the US affirmation on the global stage was only a matter of time. Though largely controversial and uncertain, the era proved crucial for the US formation, and established the core values of American society that would prove relevant during its subsequent development as the world's major superpower.
References
Foner, Philip S. The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917. New York: International Publishers, 1965. 559. Print.
Goldberg, David J. Discontented America: The United States in the 1920s. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. 13, 40. Print.
Miller, Nathan. New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America. New York: Scribner, 2003. 1. Print.
President William McKinley is Shot. Retrieved Jan. 7, 2016, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-william-mckinley-is-shot
